Commander (Star Trek)
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Commander was established early in but was not actually held by a character until the 3rd season of the program. Though he wore the insignia of full Commander for almost the entire run of the series, Mr. Spock was not actually referred to as a Commander until the mid third season. Prior to this time, he was spoken of as a Lieutenant Commander.
Spock was the only full Commander to appear in Star Trek: The Original Series, however he was joined in the rank by Leonard McCoy and Montgomery Scott in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In subsequent feature films, Commander became the "terminal rank" of several major characters including Uhura, Pavel Chekov, Christine Chapel, and Janice Rand. Keeping such characters at the rank of Commander prevented them from being "promoted off the show" thus allowing them to continue making screen appearances as part of a single crew. The notable exceptions to this were the characters of Spock and Montgomery Scott who were both promoted from Commander to Captain yet remained serving under Captain Kirk. One may assume this is similar to the practice onboard modern day U.S. aircraft carriers where several Captains serve in various roles under a single Captain who commands the ship.
Commander became a fairly common rank in the follow-on series, frequently associated with the executive officer (or first officer) of a starship, namely William T. Riker in . Other major characters in TNG also held the rank, including Beverly Crusher.
Various guest stars also held the rank and, in the seventh season of the Next Generation series, the character of Deanna Troi was promoted to full Commander in the episode "Thine Own Self". Troi's promotion introduced the concept of a "promotion examination" establishing that to obtain the rank of Commander one must complete an advanced training course and pass a final examination.
focused around the character of Benjamin Sisko who spent the first half of the series as a Commander before being promoted to Captain. The series Star Trek Voyager had no Commanders as part of its crew, with the highest rank (other than Captain Janeway) being that of provisional Lieutenant Commander Chakotay. However he was only ever referred to as 'Commander'.
The most recent Star Trek series, Star Trek Enterprise, hosted the main characters of T'Pol and Charles Tucker III, both of whom were Commanders.
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Starfleet ranks and insignia
Commander
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Commander is a commissioned rank of the Starfleet in the fictional universe of Star Trek. 
Junior rank:
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